You come home excited about your new puppy and you can't wait to take it to town + show all of your friends. I get it. Their wrinkly face, floppy ears, and mini size are to die for, but I'd think twice about letting the new family member roam the town with you until it has had ALL of its vaccinations.

Why? Because the chances of that pup getting Parvo skyrocket when you start tromping around  town with them. Treat them like you do a newborn baby.... HANDS-OFF + doors locked! Parvo is one disease I will always despise. We've lost a few even when we thought we were doing everything right. It's tough to watch a dog suffer that way and there is not much you can do about it once it hits. 


We spent several nights waking up every two hours pushing fluids, anti-nausea meds, antibiotics, + vitamins to try and pull them through it. To some in the hound world, a dog is another tool in the toolbox. To us, they are a part of the family + I will do anything that needs to be done to save a life. With this litter, we were able to save two of the five. I still remember hearing the scratching on the door at 2:15 am and when I opened it, the dog we own named Creek was sitting there bright-eyed with his tail wagging. 

We had been using our bathroom as a makeshift dog hospital with chux pads all over the tile floor, heating keeping things at 80 degrees, and all of their meds + fluids sitting on the counter at the ready for the next round of care. After this, we decided we wanted to know the best way to prevent it from happening again so we paid the vet another visit. Dr Blood was so kind to take the time out of his day to sit down with me and answer a few questions. 

The biggest thing is understanding what Parvo does in a puppy's body and how to catch the first signs because this gives you the best shot at saving them. The first thing it does is attacks the immune system to weaken it. It actually uses the immune system to travel throughout your dog's body. Once it becomes stronger, it starts to get into all of the nooks and crannies of the intestines while depleting the Vili which are the hair-like structures that help your puppy absorb water and nutrients. Now, your pup has bloody diarrhea and begins to vomit. This is when it is starting to advance and your chances are getting slimmer by the hour.... literally. 


With the litter that caught Parvo, we thought we had done everything right and by the time I took them to the vet, I wasn't even suspecting it if I'm being honest. We learned a lot by sitting down with Dr Blood and have avoided Parvo for years now.  Here are six simple tips he recommended to prevent your pup from getting Parvo: 

• TIP ONE: The biggest thing we saw out on the web is that Parvo can live in the soil for up to 15 years and we were so glad to hear that it was a myth. He said that Parvo typically only lives for a few months. It is an envelope disease meaning that it can separate itself from the environment to survive longer. The best thing to help dilute the virus and get rid of it is a harsh winter + lots of sunshine.  

• TIP TWO: Give everything a good wash with bleach water. This can be hard in the soil, but we mixed it by the bucket and dumped it everywhere making sure that no spot was left dry. We also sprayed down the kennels with a spray bottle. We did this daily for a week.... just to be sure. Then we never trusted that area again because we thought it could literally live for years! Now we know better, but then, we still obsessed over the bleaching and kept the pups in a different location just to be safe. 

• TIP THREE: Create a "puppy nursery" in an area of your yard that has not been touched by the sick puppies. Bleach tends to kill grass so for us, it wasn't an option to use the yard when the next littler arrived. The other problem with grass (or dirt) is, if another dog wanders into this area, they may be carriers and not even have symptoms because it doesn't typically affect older dogs as much as the younger ones. They can track it in with dirt on their feet or take a poo and spread the love. If you don't have a fenced yard, block off an area so other dogs can't access it. 

• TIP FOUR: Give mama a booster before breeding her. This boosts the antibodies in mom and she passes those along to her puppies giving them the best chance. When you wean the puppies, they still have all the antibodies they got from mama, but as the days and weeks pass, these slowly decrease as the pup starts to rely on their own immune system to kick in. This is why they can be especially vulnerable until they've had their last shot and why they can be exposed and not show symptoms for days or weeks after.  

• TIP FIVE: Wash your hands and have all visitors wash theirs + remove their shoes before entering the kennel area. This will prevent anything that they may have stepped in or touched from being transferred into the "nursery." It's kinda like shaking someone's hand + not knowing where it has been

• TIP SIX: It is now recommended to give shots every three weeks beginning around 6 weeks of age. So, keep your puppy safe at home until after their final vaccinations have been given which will be at 12 weeks of age. Then you may carefully share all the puppy love with family and friends! 

We haven't had Parvo at our place since implementing this and we've been able to safely allow puppies back into the yard less than a year after the disease arrived. We were so grateful to learn that it doesn't live quite as long as we thought. 


We hope you learned some new tips and tricks when it comes to Parvo prevention. I know we sure did and we are so grateful to Dr Blood who took the time out of his day to chat with us. 

See ya on the mountain!